The Foreign Affairs Ministry is monitoring the situation being faced by 60 Maltese businessmen whose merchandise was seized in Sicily late last year but cannot intervene due to ongoing court proceedings in Italy, a ministry spokesman said yesterday.
Last November 15, €500,000 (Lm214,650) worth of merchandise bought by Maltese businessmen was seized by the Guardia di Finanza in Catania, Sicily, on the grounds that the Italian vendors had failed to pay Customs duty in Italy, according to Labour MP José Herrera, a lawyer who is assisting the Maltese entrepreneurs in their efforts to get the merchandise released.
The spokesman said the authorities were keeping tabs on the situation through the Maltese Embassy in Rome and the Consul in Catania. However, the ministry could not interfere given the ongoing proceedings initiated by the Italian authorities.
Dr Herrera has insisted that the Maltese buyers acted in good faith because they had made their purchases from wholesalers in Catania and were in possession of the necessary documents.
The businessmen are calling on the Maltese authorities to intervene. On Thursday, some of them staged a protest at City Gate, Valletta, and then proceeded to the Foreign Ministry where, Dr Herrera said later, nobody would speak to them. They then went to the Office of the Prime Minister and presented a number of documents to the Prime Minister's secretariat.
The ministry spokesman told The Times that when the businessmen went to the ministry on Thursday they simply did not have the patience to wait for the person responsible to meet them and headed off to the Office of the Prime Minister, round the corner.
The businessmen had already called at the ministry some time last month and had spoken to the Head of Protocol when they were informed that the ministry was keeping tabs on the situation. One had to appreciate the fact that the Italian authorities were investigating the matter and this procedure would take time, the spokesman said.
He said the ministry was informed that the businessmen took the case to the courts in Catania and had engaged a lawyer - as they had a right to do.
However, while the ministry will keep monitoring the situation, this had now become a private matter.
When contacted, Dr Herrera explained that, when the merchandise was seized, a garnishee order was issued by the courts in Catania. The businessmen had now appointed an Italian lawyer to represent them in the Tribunale Della Libertà, Catania, where they are asking the court to quash the garnishee order. The case is still pending.
Meanwhile, Dr Herrera added, his clients have offered to pay the duty owed (about 10 per cent of the merchandise value) under protest - that is provided they would be refunded should the court decide in their favour - but they have not received the bill.